Fuel Scarcity: 18 ships carrying fuel waiting to berth at Lagos Ports

Eighteen ships are waiting to berth and discharge petroleum products at various oil terminals within the Lagos ports, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) said on Thursday.
The “Shipping Position”, a daily publication of the NPA, stated that 13 ships were laden with petrol.
According to the publication, two ships each are carrying kerosene and aviation fuel while one ship will discharge diesel.
The NPA document indicated that four other ships were waiting to discharge general cargoes, including rice and containers.
The publication further stated that 92 ships carrying different cargoes would arrive in Lagos ports between Sept. 26 and Oct. 22.
It added that 17 of the ships would convey petroleum products. (NAN)
 BusinessNews

Patience Jonathan declared fit, scheduled to return to Nigeria soon

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by Isi Esene
There are indications that doctors attending to the first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, who is generally believed to be receiving treatment in a German hospital might soon be on her way back home.
Reports say her doctors in Wiesbaden, Germany have given her a clean bill of health to return back to Nigeria.
She was speculated to have expressed her wish to accompany the president to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly but was advised against it by her physicians.
The source said, “She wanted to follow her husband to the 67th United Nations General Assembly in New York but she was advised against that by the doctors that, as they they told her that she needed some more time to rest.
“I can tell you that she is now in a good state after a successful surgery. She was only treated of appendicitis through surgical operation at the German hospital. The First Lady is in a stable state. The doctors at the hospitals have confirmed her fitness, but she needs more time to rest.”
The source did not give a definite date for her arrival.
Special assistant to the first lady on media, Ayo Osinlu, continues to maintain that Patience Jonathan is in the European country for a “moment’s rest” after hosting the first ladies’ conference in Abuja.
Mrs. Jonathan has been out of the country for 34 days.
YNaija.com

Ahead of 2015 elections: PPA want EFCC to jail Orji Kalu

Shocking revelations emerged from the camp of former governor of Abia State and founder of Progressive Alliance (PPA), Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu as the party’s National Chairman, Ken Gbalokoma called on the Economic and financial Crime commission (EFCC) to ensure that the former governor is sent to jail for fraudulent activities during his tenure as Abia State number 1 citizen.
Fondly called OUK by fans and followers, Kalu recently declared his ambition to spearhead the affairs of Nigeria in 2015, but with the party’s assertion; his dream of ruling the country in 2015 may likely hit the rocks.
Ironically, the politician-cum-business mogul who intends to run on the platform of the People’s Progressive Alliance (PPA) is currently under heavy attack by same party who insists he must be sent to prison.
Mr. Gbalokoma said EFCC’s ‘sloppy’ prosecution of the former governor had given him the guts to throw his hat in the presidential contest.
“If the EFCC had put him through diligent trial, Orji Uzor Kalu should have been in jail by now rather than on the soap box canvassing for votes,” Mr. Gbalokoma said.
He said Mr. Kalu’s credentials are marred with fraudulent activities as he plunged “Abia State into a N27.3 billion debt”.
The party chairman also appealed to the Chief Justice of the Federation to expedite Mr. Kalu’s trial in order that he “be sent to jail where he truly belongs to save the nation from further embarrassment.”
It would be recalled that Kalu last Thursday, sneaked into Ile Ife, Osun State, for a secret meeting with the Ooni of Ife, Okunade Sijuwade, with the major preoccupation of seeking the powerful monarch’s support for his supposed 2015 presidential ambition.
Kalu was indicted in 2010 for a 107-count charge of money laundering, brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the misappropriation of N5 billion belonging to the Abia state government.
The former governor ran for president in 2007 but lost to the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
His ambition to represent his people at the Upper Chamber was truncated by Senator Chukwumereji in 2011.

DailyPost

Financial Times: Nigeria aviation: A new low

And then there were two. A fortnight after Air Nigeria folded, and three months after Dana Air was grounded following a crash in Lagos that killed 153 passengers and crew, Nigeria’s biggest airline Arik Air suspended all domestic flights on Thursday “until further notice”.
Thousands of people were left stranded at airports across the country. The only commercial carriers left in the sky are Aero, which has a dozen or so planes, and IRS, with six aircraft and a website that inspires little confidence. This in Africa’s most populous country, with distant commercial, political and oil industry capitals, and an unfriendly road network that makes flying the only option for businesspeople.
The Arik debacle shows the depth of the aviation sector rot. On its website the company said its operations had been disrupted by workers from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria. FAAN denied this, and said unions upset over unpaid salaries were responsible for picketing the airline’s offices in Lagos. Arik, which also flies regionally and to London, New York and Johannesburg, then spread the blame higher.
Addressing the media on Thursday afternoon, its management accused the aviation ministry and in particular the minister, Princess Stella Oduah, of having a personal interest in seeing the airline fail. Oduah, who is a close ally of President Goodluck Jonathan and describes herself on her website as “an amazon of a woman”, dismissed the allegations through a spokesman. Her ministry alleged that Arik was trying to divert attention away from the many millions of dollars it owes to the federal government. All this just a day after the Senate Committee on Aviation recommended that Arik be allowed to serve as the national carrier.
For frequent flyers in Nigeria, which accounts for around two-thirds of all the air traffic in West Africa, this is all very bad news. The Dana disaster, which occurred on the busy Abuja-Lagos route, had already left many people uneasy about flying. Though it has not yet resumed operations, Dana has been cleared for take-off, to the anger of some of the victims’ relatives who still don’t know what caused the crash.
The demise of privately-owned Air Nigeria also left a bitter taste, with passengers stranded in the UK reportedly forced to pay £40 each for aviation fuel for the journey home. Arik’s own future is now clouded.
Dung Pam, a Nigerian pilot and industry watcher, says weak regulation, political interference, fraud and high operating costs all contribute to the aviation crisis. Airlines need to consolidate to survive, he says.
But there is no sign that anyone who matters is listening. “We are on a slippery slope,” says Pam.
 BusinessNews

Secretary General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Lateef Adegbite is dead

The governor of Ogun State, in a statement signed by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Funmi Wakama on Friday, announced the death of Dr Adegbite, who was also the Seriki Musulumi and Baba Adini of Egbaland.
According to the statement, Dr. Adegbite “passed on this (Friday) evening in Lagos, at the age of seventy nine.”
The statement described the late Seriki of Egbaland as one of the icons the state has produced for Nigeria.
“Dr. Adegbite shone like a star in the field of law and was well known across the world as the mouthpiece of Islam in Nigeria”, the governor stated, adding that “the late Seriki was a man who usually offered wise counsel to governments at Federal and State levels.”
“The demise of Dr Adegbite is not just a loss to Ogun State but to Nigeria as a whole” the governor mourned.
The Islamic cleric would be laid to rest on Saturday, according to Islamic rites.
DailyPost

“100 million Nigerians lack proper identification” – NIMC

As the security challenge facing the country mounts, more than 100 million Nigerians do not have proper identification, according to the National Identify Management Commission (NIMC).
Also, more than N940 million had being paid as severance benefits to former workers of the agency.
Its Director General Chris Onyemenam said yesterday in Abuja that “more than 75 per cent of the 150 million Nigerian Population have fake identification or are not properly captured.”
This, he noted, has not helped in addressing the many complicated issues of security, immigration and many such related issues.
Onyemenam said: “Disengagement cost of N940.0million” was paid to more than 4000 redundant workers who were ‘sacked’ from the Commission.”
The affected workers protested at the main entrance of the NIMC headquarters in Abuja, but NIMC’s Head Human Capital, Mrs. Winfred Ojieh, said: “Disengagement is not termination nor dismissal, as the such a worker have a chance to return. Because it is a process in a reform exercise, it is when you commit an offence that you will be dismissed”.
The NIMC said most of the affected workers lacked the requisite educational qualification to be employed or were redundant or absentee.
“Following successful consultation with the Unions, management formally declared a redundancy and subsequently followed laid down procedure in conducting the redundancy exercise including the negotiation sessions with representatives of all Unions inherited from the defunct Department of National Civic Registration (DNCR)” he said.
 DailyPost

“If one Abu Qaqa dies, it can generate 10 Abu Qaqas” – President Jonathan explains why the government is winning war against Boko Haram

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by Stanley Azuakola

On the issue of Boko Haram, President Goodluck Jonathan’s official position at the United Nations General Assembly is that Nigeria’s three-prong strategy of a “robust” approach to neutralizing Boko Haram, holding indirect talks with the group and improving education in the North is working, and Nigeria is winning the war.
When one considers the recent killing of Boko Haram spokesman Abu Qaqa by the military and the recent arrest of militants in a bomb factory in Adamawa, it truly appears like the strategy is working. However, in an interview the president had with Reuters on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, he downplayed the impact of the September 16 death of Abu Qaqa during a gun battle with soldiers in Kano.
“If I look at it, the trend is coming down. It is not because Abu Qaqa is dead. Abu Qaqa is just one person. If one Abu Qaqa dies, it can generate 10 Abu Qaqas,” said the president.

“The issue is not the death of one person. The issue is that the robust approach that government is taking, exploiting all possible means… is paying off, and we believe it will continue to pay off.”

Responding to the reported heavy handed tactics of the military, Jonathan made it clear that the military approach could only be one part of the solution. He said there were much more important approaches, like the push to improve agriculture, job prospects and access to Western-style education in the predominantly Muslim north.

“The whole approach, both the security aspects, the indirect talks, and the job opportunities that we are creating, we are giving hope to the people. The education institutions we are establishing are giving hope to the people.

“One links up with the other to get to the respite we are seeing now. I cannot credit it to only one approach”, he said.
YNaija.com